


Forget to Remember

by alfing



Category: X-Men - All Media Types, X-Men: First Class (2011) RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Charles Is a Big Dorkface, Charles Xavier has a Ph.D in Adorable, Charles in a Wheelchair, EVERYONE is here - Freeform, Erik Has Feelings, Erik Logic Is The Best Logic, Erik doesn't leave, Erik is not a Happy Bunny, Everyone is a little bit more happy, Fluff and Humor, Frank Sinatra - Freeform, Honestly Charles What Are You Thinking, Hospitals, M/M, Post-Cuba, Protective Erik, Raven doesn't leave, Temporary Amnesia, except darwin, lots of regret
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-09
Updated: 2017-06-09
Packaged: 2018-11-11 12:51:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,896
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11148804
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alfing/pseuds/alfing
Summary: Charles thought it was a good idea to erase everyone's memories of him because he thought being paralysed would be too much of a problem for him what the hell Charles.





	Forget to Remember

**Author's Note:**

> idk I saw a prompt for something similar to this but I left out a majority of the angst and inserted all of the fluff?
> 
> Also I really like Frank Sinatra, thanks for the title, Frank.
> 
> P.S. I own nothing but the fact that I wrote this

**I** t was after Cuba that the idea had come to his mind. What if he just... disappeared? Charles had seen the looks on everyone’s faces after they had found out he had been paralysed from the waist down. Even he was devastated by the revelation. But he didn’t want to be a burden on them as he knew he was going to be, so he had formed a plan the first night at the hospital.

Of course, Charles had no intention of abandoning the children, so he used the time Erik still remained to insure  _ he _ would be the one to care for them while he was away. It was a bit selfish of him to dump all of his responsibilities on his dear friend, but his newfound paralysis would be an even bigger burden, he believed. So as everyone left the hospital the second day, he made sure to replace their major memories of him with something practical. For example, instead of Charles being the one who adopted Raven as his sister, he inserted a memory of her being adopted by his mother instead. It took a lot of creativity and a lot of thought to pull through with his plan, but it was finally settled and he was officially alone in the world. There was a nagging voice in the back of his mind that told him he would regret this later, but for now, he focused on getting through physical therapy.

 

That same day, Erik and the others traveled back to the mansion, a little dazed and confused. The feeling was quickly dismissed as soon as they arrived. Alex and Sean retired to their rooms, claiming to be exhausted, though they couldn’t remember why. Hank escaped to his lab without a word, probably to start working on more experiments and whatnot. Erik and Raven wandered into the kitchen for some coffee, neither one saying anything to each other. There was an odd tension between them, but it was difficult to tell why. It was like something important happened but neither one could name it. It irritated Erik to no end.

As he leaned against the counter and sipped his coffee, he scowled. This peculiar hunch that something was missing wouldn’t go away, like an unwanted pimple you find on your face. Erik’s scrunched expression caught Raven’s attention and she rolled her eyes at him. This behavior was not unusual for the man who spent most of his time looking grumpy. But she knew better than to question it and left the room quietly.

Left to his own devices, Erik’s scowl soon disappeared and was replaced with a frustrated frown. He peered down at his hazel expression in the coffee cup, the action causing the liquid to shake slightly. The distortion in his image somehow brought a random memory to mind.

The brown beverage transformed into ripples in the water as he recalled being brought to the surface by a force behind him. What he was doing in the ice cold sea? Well, he had been chasing Shaw’s submarine before something (or some _ one _ ) had spoken to him in his mind and lured him above the water. The chill of the night air added to his numbness caused by the water, his wet suit clung to his skin uncomfortably. Erik had looked at the man who had interrupted him and remembered seeing startling blue eyes and cherry red lips that stood vividly on a pale canvas. That vibrant mouth moved and these life-changing words echoed in his ears.  _ You are not alone _ .

 

It had been two weeks since Charles brainwashed them and he would be lying if he said he didn’t miss them already. Since then, the telepath had been doing daily exercises to strengthen his arms so he can maneuver into and out of his wheelchair. To be frank, he didn’t quite like hospitals; not only was the food ghastly, there was absolutely  _ nothing _ to do besides watch television or wander the bustling hallways. On his fourth day there, he had discovered there were board games hidden in his room and he had gladly accepted a box of chess to play with fellow patients when he was out and about.

Charles had taken up challenging one of the elderly men he had met and spent lunch playing chess with him. But their matches had always ended up with him feeling unsatisfied and even more lonely than before. For the third time that week, he cleaned up the pieces on his own and wheeled back to his room dejectedly. He couldn’t help but believe Erik had been a much better adversary.

 

Since that day he had a sudden flashback, Erik could not stop thinking about it. He couldn’t recall it ever actually happening, but it felt so  _ real _ that it just had to be his genuine memory. But who was that man? Where is he now? What happened afterwards? He replayed the scene in his mind every day, but still couldn’t fit the pieces together. When he asked Raven about what happened that night, he only received a vague response.

“Of course, don’t you remember, Erik? Right after we pulled you from the water we...” then she trailed off and claimed  _ she _ couldn’t remember what happened next.

It was all very suspicious.

Erik then decided it was best to investigate further on the matter. He wandered through the mansion, opening doors to empty rooms and peering through barren cabinets. Eventually, he stumbled across a study. Papers and books were scattered across a desk and the wood in the fireplace was burnt, giving the image that someone had only been using it until recently. None of them had entered this room before, so it was a bit strange to see such obvious evidence of someone living there. He stepped further into the room and noticed a chess set sitting idly in front of the fireplace, pieces still set on the board as though whoever had been there left in the middle of a game. A memory appeared in his mind again.

Erik sat in one of the armchairs in front of the hearth, a glass of scotch in one hand, the other tapping the arm of his seat thoughtfully as he considered his next move. A soft chuckle sounded from the person in front of him. The noise caused his heart to skip a beat, fondness sweeping over him.

“ _ I’ve got you stumped, haven’t I _ ?” the mysterious man asked, his voice sweet like honey, his accent alluring.

Erik gave a scoff as he reached forward towards his bishop. “ _ As if. I’ve got  _ you _ wrapped around my finger _ ,” he countered, moving the piece across the board. “ _ Your move, Charles _ .”

The memory faded, and once again, he was left feeling lost. At least this time, he had a name.

 

It was two days before he was to be discharged from the hospital. Charles was glad to finally be allowed to leave, unable to bear hanging around for much longer. He had finally gotten used to relying on his arms to get around and had actually gained a few muscles thanks to all of his exercises. Today, he sat on the hospital bed, eating a soggy brownie and listening to the radio. Frank Sinatra’s “Forget To Remember” played softly, an oddly fitting song, he believed. Charles hummed to himself the lyrics, recalling the time he had shared his fondness for Sinatra’s music to Erik once.

“‘Somehow believe in living, forget about the giving, just tell your life it must go on,’” he whispered as he stared at his pathetic excuse for a dessert. Charles sighed as he laid back against the pillows. “Oh, Erik... what have I done?”

 

Erik awoke suddenly in the middle of the night. He felt as though he had been hit right in the face with realization. Charles. The goofy mutant professor whom he met when he recklessly threw himself into the icy sea. Charles, the passionate telepathic pacifist who wears clothes fitting for an old man even though he was barely over thirty himself. Charles Francis Xavier, the man who he was hopelessly in love with.  _ They left him at the hospital _ .

Erik had never gotten up and dressed so quickly in his life. He scribbled a quick, messy note and left it on the kitchen counter before grabbing the keys to whatever he could find first and drove as fast as he could down the road. He didn’t give a damn about traffic laws, his Charles was abandoned in a gross hospital with gross hospital people  _ and he forgot _ . He didn’t know  _ why _ Charles wanted him to forget, he didn’t know  _ why _ he wanted  _ any of them to forget _ . But he was too pumped full of adrenaline to ponder it because Charles was being an idiot again and was probably crying in a corner now.

It was surprising when Erik actually managed to parallel park in a situation like this, but he wasted no time to charge right into the building. The receptionist was quick to stop him before he could get any further.

“Sir, visiting hours are over now, I’ll need to ask you to leave-”

Erik Magnus Lehnsherr doesn’t care that visiting hours are over, he’s going to get his Charles  _ now _ . He pushed past the nervous woman and marched down the corridor where he remembered being last. He open the door to Charles’s room and saw him curled up on the hospital bed, shoulders shaking. Erik’s expression softened as he approached him. He sat down on the bed and he noticed how Charles froze.

“That was really selfish of you, Charles,” Erik scolded, hands folded in his lap. “But I assume you’ve learned your lesson.”

“Oh shut up, Erik,” the telepath huffed, hiccupping as he stopped crying. “I don’t want to hear you say ‘I told you so’, because you didn’t. No one told me I was going to regret this.”

“You did.”

“I know I did. Now take me home.”

 

As soon as the two of them returned to the mansion, Charles returned everyone’s memories. And as soon as he did, all of them came running to him, dressed in their pyjamas, angry and relieved tears flowing from their faces. A series of “What the hell were you thinking, Charles?”s and “I’m glad you’re okay”s were thrown at him as he was bombarded with hugs from everyone besides Raven who opted to pinch his cheeks so hard he began to cry.

“I’m sorry, everyone,” he apologized, rubbing his face and wiping his eyes. “I just didn’t want to bother you all with what happened. But I suppose I only made things worse.”

Erik sighed. “It’s alright, Charles. We forgive you,” he insisted. “But don’t go making such rash decisions on your own.”

“Like you’re one to talk,” Alex muttered, earning a glare from the metallokinetic. 

Charles made a guilty look, as though he were a child who had wandered off on his own at the store and was just returned to his worried parents. “I’ll make it up to you all somehow,” he promised.

“Well, for starters,” Raven began, still not completely happy with what Charles did. “Alex will be needing someone to supervise his training again. Specifically at a close proximity.”

Regret was an understatement to how Charles really felt right then and there.


End file.
